Mile 1281.1 to 1294.4 – 13.3 miles total hiked on PCT

The Perseid Meteor Shower was nice and I saw a few streaks go through the sky, but never managed to get them on my phone or camera.

But did get these.

Then sunrise did not disappoint.

After that, it was 7.5 miles down to Belden. Wasn’t steep, but were some fallen trees to climb over on the way down.

It’s actually not much to this town. It doesn’t even have a post office anymore.

The Belden Town Resort is the main focus for PCT hikers. There’s also an RV park a mile down Highway 70 that also caters to hikers.

The number one thing at resort was to get a big lunch. Which included Coca-Cola, of course.

It’s a nice building and I guess has new owners who are trying to fix it up. I resisted the urge to get out room there for the night because I didn’t want to spend another zero night somewhere unexpectedly.

As far as replies, I didn’t really need too much. Mostly some trail snacks, candy, and (of course) cans of Diet Coke. 😛

I also should have gotten at least one more breakfast from them because I turned out to be one breakfast short of reaching Chester.

I didn’t find that out until the second night out of Belden. Oops. I can use my pop tarts for a breakfast for the last morning. 👍

But after the resort, the real goal for Belden came into view.

No, not the bridge, but the milestone right after it where the PCT meets Highway 70!

End of PCT California section M in Belden, California. 1288.9 miles hiked from Mexican border!!

Quite the accomplishment, but there were more to come in the days ahead.

Unfortunately, my decision to not stay at the resort for a night that I had to start climbing up a very long and steep part of the trail.

A lot is made of the 4000 foot climbs to some of the 12,000 foot passes in the Sierra Nevada.

What we have after Belden was an almost 5,400 foot climb over about 13 miles from Belden to the Highpoint.

I did not want to do that all in one day. Which if I stayed overnight, I probably would have to do it in a day.

So I decided to head out mid afternoon to a campsite about 4 1/2 miles up the trail. Maybe I should’ve thought more about the time of day.

Belden is that about 2500 feet above sea level, so it is generally hotter than the rest of the hills and mountains around it.

So the afternoon turned into quite hot climb made even hotter by the fact that there were a lot of burn zones that had no shade.

Other than that, it was a straightforward climb. 😛

As usual being paranoid about water, I got water at a stream about a mile and a half from the campsite. Turns out there were two streams, running very well nearby. Oh well.

I set up my tent and looked around. The area was a former site of a cabin called Williams cabin. The cabin is gone, but there’s a shovel and a stack of old items that people have dug up or found in the area.

I’m pretty sure the Hawaiian shirt and the crushed can of soda were not part of the old cabin. 🤣

Only one hiker seen on the trail: a southbound sectional hiker